Methods and apparatus to provide incentives to deflect callers to websites

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus to provide incentives to deflect callers to websites are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to deflect a caller to a webpage include receiving a call from the caller, offering an incentive to the caller to terminate the call and access the webpage, and providing an address of the webpage to the caller after the caller consents to terminate the call.

RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/668,809 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,438,056), entitled “METHODS ANDAPPARATUS TO PROVIDE INCENTIVES TO DEFLECT CALLERS TO WEBSITES” andfiled on Jan. 30, 2007. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/668,809 ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, and priority to theabove-referenced application is hereby claimed.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to call center processing and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus to provide incentives to deflectcallers to websites.

BACKGROUND

Businesses often employ call centers to provide service for theircallers (e.g., customers). For example, a call center may act as acustomer support center, a sales outlet or an information kiosk for oneor more products or services offered by a business. Call centerstypically use automated call routing techniques to route incoming callsto appropriate destinations in the call center, such as, for example, acustomer support technician, a sales representative, an operator, etc.Call centers may also use interactive voice systems to, for example,present a welcoming message to customers contacting the call center,provide information concerning products and/or services offered by thebusiness operating the call center, and/or prompt customers to provideinformation for use by the automatic call routing techniques. In someapplications, the welcoming message may include an invitation forcustomers to access a website associated with the call center or thebusiness operating the call center.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example caller support system capable ofdeflecting an incoming caller to a website.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example call processor and an examplecall deflector that may be used to implement the example caller supportsystem of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3A-3B collectively form a flowchart representative of examplemachine readable instructions that may be executed to implement theexample call processor and/or the example call deflector of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement an example incentiveprocessor for use by the example call deflector of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement an example fraudprocessor for use by the example call deflector of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computer that may execute theexample machine readable instructions of FIGS. 3A-3B, 4 and/or 5 toimplement the example call processor and/or the example call deflectorof FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A block diagram of an example caller support system 100 capable ofdeflecting incoming callers to one or more webpages associated with oneor more websites is illustrated in FIG. 1. The example caller supportsystem 100 includes a call center 110. The example call center 110 maycorrespond to, for example, a customer support call center, a sales callcenter, an information query call center, etc. The example call center110 is configured to receive incoming calls from callers via any type ofphone, such as, for example, a mobile phone 120, a land line phone 130,etc. The mobile phone 120 of the illustrated example may be compatiblewith any type of mobile phone communications service, such as, forexample, an Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) service, a Time DivisionMultiple Access (TDMA) service, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)service, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) service, asatellite communications service, etc. The land line phone 130 of theillustrated example may be compatible with any type of land linecommunications service, such as, for example, the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN), a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) service,etc. The term caller as used herein refers to any incoming caller to thecall center 110, including, but not limited to, employees, potentialcustomers, customary clients, competitors and/or parties having norelation to the call center 110.

The example caller support system 100 also includes a web server 140configured to host a website associated with the example call center110. For example, the website hosted by the web server 140 of theillustrated example may provide self-service customer support, salesportals and/or information kiosks for services and/or productsassociated with the call center 110. Furthermore, one or more webpagesassociated with the website and served by the web server 140 may bepersonalized to individual callers of the call center 110 based on, forexample, caller identification information, account information, etc.associated with each individual caller or group of callers. The webpagesserved by the web server 140 may be accessed by a caller to the callcenter 110 via, for example, the mobile phone 120 or a computer 150co-located with the land line phone 130 at a caller site 160 as shown.For example, the mobile phone 120 may implement a Wireless ApplicationProtocol (WAP) or similar Internet browser capable of accessing the oneor more webpages served by the web server 140. The computer 150 maycorrespond to any type of computing device, such as, for example, apersonal computer, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a gaming console, another mobile phone, etc.

In the example caller support system 100, the call center 110, themobile phone 120, the land line phone 130, the web server 140 and thecomputer 150 are connected via a network 170 as shown. In someimplementations, the network 170 of the illustrated example may beimplemented by a single network technology, such as, for example, adigital mobile phone system (e.g., such as a TDMA, CDMA or UMTS system),a system capable of supporting both VoIP and data communications (e.g.,such as AT&T's Lightspeed access network), the Internet, etc. In otherimplementations, the network 170 of the illustrated example may beimplemented by multiple network technologies, such as, for example, avoice communications network for voice services (e.g., such as the PSTN,a mobile telecommunications system, etc.) and a data communicationsnetwork for data services (e.g., such as a digital subscriber line (DSL)system, the Internet, etc.).

Under certain circumstances discussed in greater detail below, a callerto the example call center 110 may select whether to continue the callwith the call center 110 or to terminate the call in favor of accessingan identified webpage served by the web server 140. The identifiedwebpage is tailored to process the caller's request, provide theassistance (e.g., technical support) desired by the caller, etc. Anexample call processor 180 included in the call center 110 employsautomated call-routing techniques to obtain information from the callerto characterize the purpose of the call, the caller's identity, etc. Inaddition to using the characterizing information to route the call tothe appropriate call center destination, the example call processor 180provides the information to an example call deflector 190. The examplecall deflector 190 of FIG. 1 employs action-object technology toidentify one or more webpages relevant to the characterizing informationassociated with the call. However, other techniques, such as heuristics,could be used. Additionally, the identified webpages may be rankedaccording to relevancy and the example call deflector 190 configured toselect the webpage with the highest ranking Furthermore, if no relevantwebpage is identified, then a default general-purpose webpage may beselected by the example call deflector 190 in lieu of a personalizedwebpage.

The example call center 110 then offers the caller the option ofaccessing a webpage identified by the example call deflector 190 insteadof continuing the call with the call center 110. If the caller acceptsthe option, an address (e.g. such as a uniform resource locator (URL))to the webpage is provided. Additionally, the caller may be given apassword or other type of access code to enable the caller to accesspersonalized information or a personalized hyperlink via a websiteassociated with the identified webpage. However, if the caller declinesthe option to access the webpage, the current call with the call center110 is allowed to continue. To determine whether the caller accepts ordeclines the option to access the webpage, the example call center 110may employ, for example, voice recognition technology to process averbal response (e.g., a predetermined spoken word) by the caller to theoffer. Additionally or alternatively, the example call center 110 mayemploy touchtone detection technology to process a touchtone entry(e.g., DTMF) in response to the offer to terminate the call and accessthe identified webpage. Additionally or alternatively, the example callcenter 110 may employ teletype (TTY) detection technology to process aTTY entry (e.g., a Baudot code) in response to the offer to terminatethe call and access the identified webpage.

A detailed block diagram of the example call processor 180 and theexample call deflector 190 of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2. As discussedabove, the example call processor 180 and the example call deflector 190may be used to implement the example call center 110 in the examplecaller support system 100 of FIG. 1. The example call processor 180 ofFIG. 2 includes a call router 210 to route incoming calls received via acall interface 215 to, for example, an appropriate destination withinthe call center 110, another call center, or any other appropriatedestination for an incoming call. The call router 210 of the illustratedexample implements automatic call routing techniques to determineinformation characterizing an incoming call received via the callinterface 215. The characterizing information may include, for example,caller identification information, such as a name, address, phonenumber, account information, etc., associated with, for example, thecaller placing the incoming call. The characterizing information mayalso include information classifying the purpose of the call, such as,for example, a request for customer support, an intent to purchase aproduct or service, associated product or service information, etc. Thecall router 210 determines the characterizing information from one ormore sources, such as, for example, from a caller identification (ID)service, from touchtone entries, TTY entries (e.g., Baudot codes) and/orspeech (e.g., verbal responses corresponding to a set of possible spokenwords) provided by the caller in response to prompts for information,etc.

The example call processor 180 of FIG. 2 also includes an interactivevoice system 220. The interactive voice system 220 of the illustratedexample provides information in verbal form to a caller associated withan incoming call received via the call interface 215. The verbalinformation provided by the interactive voice system 220 may includegeneral messages presented to all callers. The general messages mayinclude, for example, a welcome message, prompts to the caller to maketouchtone entries, TTY entries and/or or to speak particular words to,for example, identify the caller, determine the purpose of the call,etc.

The verbal information provided by the interactive voice system 220 mayalso include specific information tailored to a particular caller. Theinteractive voice system 220 may use the characterizing informationdetermined by the call router 210 to determine one or more specificmessages from a set of possible messages to present to the particularcaller. For example, the interactive voice system 220 may use thecharacterizing information to provide prompts to the caller tailored tospecific products or services of interest to the caller, options forcustomer support, etc. Additionally, and as discussed in greater detailbelow, the interactive voice system 220 will, if appropriate, provide aprompt to the caller to access a webpage in lieu of continuing the callwith the call center 110.

The interactive voice system 220 may also employ speech processingtechniques to process words and/or phrases spoken by the caller. Thewords and/or phrases spoken by the caller may be in response to promptsby the interactive voice system 220 to allow the call router 210 todetermine characterizing information associated with the incoming call.Furthermore, the interactive voice system 220 may use speech processingtechniques to determine whether the caller accepts or declines an offerto access a webpage in lieu of continuing the call with the call center110.

To enable a call center, such as the example call center 110 of FIG. 1,to provide a caller with an option of accessing a webpage in lieu ofcontinuing the call, the example call deflector 190 of FIG. 2 includes awebpage identifier 230. The webpage identifier 230 of the illustratedexample accepts the characterizing information determined by the callrouter 210. The webpage identifier 230 uses the characterizinginformation to identify an appropriate webpage from a set of possiblewebpages to provide to the caller. The set of possible webpages may beassociated with a single website or a plurality of websites. Forexample, the webpage identifier 230 may employ action-object technologyto identify one or more webpages relevant to the characterizinginformation associated with the call. The one or more identifiedwebpages may be associated with one or more websites. Additionally oralternatively, other techniques, such as heuristics, may be used by thewebpage identifier 230. Furthermore, the action-object technology,heuristics, etc., may be implemented external to the webpage identifier230 (such as, for example, in the example call processor 180) and theresults of the action-object technology, heuristics, etc., provided tothe webpage identifier 230.

The webpage identifier 230 may also employ one or more searchingtechniques to rank the set of possible webpages based on thecharacterizing information associated with the incoming call. Thewebpage identifier 230 may then identify the webpage having the highestrank as being the personalized webpage to provide to the caller.Additionally, the webpage identifier 230 may select a default, generalwebpage when the characterizing information does not permitidentification of an appropriate, personalized webpage. For example, ifthe rankings of the webpages based on the characterizing information donot exceed a threshold, the webpage identifier 230 may select thedefault, general webpage instead. After identifying the webpage tailoredfor the incoming call, the webpage identifier 230 provides theidentified webpage to the interactive voice system 220 for presentationto the caller, for example, after the caller consents to terminate theincoming call.

The example call deflector 190 of FIG. 2 also includes an incentiveprocessor 240 to determine incentives to provide to a caller associatedwith an incoming call received via the call interface 215 to access anidentified webpage in lieu of continuing the call with the call center110. The incentives offered to the caller in return for terminating thecurrent call and, instead, accessing the identified webpage may include,for example, monetary rewards, new services, a reduced time to obtainassistance via the webpage than to wait for a customer representative,an improved position in the call waiting queue for a subsequent call,etc. For example, monetary rewards may be in the form of coupons,discounts, account credits, etc. Monetary rewards may also take the formof additional minutes of service provided to the caller, such as, forexample, additional minutes of long distance service, additional minutesof wireless service, etc. Additionally, a monetary reward, a newservice, etc., may be credited to the caller's account based on thecharacterizing information associated with the incoming call asdetermined by the call router 210 (e.g., such as account informationentered by the caller in response to automated call-routing promptsprovided by the interactive voice system 220).

Additionally or alternatively, the incentive processor 240 may decide tooffer the caller a guaranteed, improved position in a future callwaiting queue if the caller accesses the identified webpage but does notobtain sufficient information, customer support, problem resolution,etc. For example, preferential positioning may be achieved through anyor all of: (1) a voice-over-IP (VoIP) system using a click-to-callfunction on the identified webpage; (2) a special code provided to thecaller that may be entered when the caller places a subsequent call tothe call center 110; (3) a special phone number to contact the callcenter 110, etc. After determining the appropriate incentive orincentives to offer the caller, the incentive processor 240 of theillustrated example provides the list of incentives to the interactivevoice system 220 for presentation to the caller.

The example call deflector 190 of FIG. 2 also includes a performanceevaluator 250 and a load balancer 260 to determine whether the callerassociated with an incoming call received via the call interface 215should be given the option of accessing a webpage in lieu of continuingthe call. For example, the performance evaluator 250 and the loadbalancer 260 can control whether the webpage identifier 230 identifies awebpage for the caller based on the current status of the call center110. Similarly, the performance evaluator 250 and the load balancer 260allow the incentive processor 240 to determine whether and what types ofincentives should be offered to encourage the caller to access thewebpage in lieu of continuing the call.

For example, the performance evaluator 250 of the illustrated example isconfigured to monitor the call center 110 via a monitoring interface 265to determine metrics associated with the performance of the call center110. Such metrics may include, for example, a current mean time toanswer calls, a current mean score for a caller feedback survey, acurrent traffic load estimate, etc. The load balancer 260 of theillustrated example processes the metrics determined by the performanceevaluator 250 to determine whether the call center 110 is meetingcertain business requirements. For example, the load balancer 260 mayuse the metrics to compute an expected time to process an incoming call.Additionally or alternatively, the load balancer 260 may compare thecurrent mean time to process an incoming call against a threshold timeto answer calls. Additionally or alternatively, the load balancer 260may compare the current mean survey score against a target score for thecustomer feedback survey. Additionally or alternatively, the loadbalancer 260 may compare the current traffic load estimate against atraffic load target, etc.

The load balancer 260 of the illustrated example uses the results of itscomparison to perform load balancing as appropriate. For example, whenthe call center 110 begins experiencing high traffic loads (orperformance associated with high traffic loads, such as, for example,high current mean call processing times, poor mean customer surveyscores, etc.), the load balancer 260 may increase the likelihood ofdeflecting incoming calls to one or more identified webpages by causingthe incentive processor 240 to increase the number and/or value of theincentives offered to incoming callers. Additionally or alternatively,the load balancer 260 may cause the incentive processor 240 to increasethe number and/or types of incentives during a single call with a singlecaller to encourage the caller to access an identified webpage in lieuof continuing the call with the call center 110.

To prevent fraud and/or gaming by people attempting to improperly obtainincentives offered to callers for accessing an identified webpage inlieu of continuing a call with the call center 110, the example calldeflector 190 of FIG. 2 also includes a fraud processor 270. The fraudprocessor 270 of the illustrated example is configured to ensure that acaller attempts to obtain the requested information from the identifiedwebpage prior to receiving the one or more offered incentives.Additionally or alternatively, the fraud processor 270 may track thefrequency of incentive use per caller. For example, the identifiedwebpage provided to the caller may use cookies to determine whether thecaller actually accesses the webpage, as well as the amount of time thecaller spends accessing the webpage. Path analysis may also be used todetermine whether the path a caller took in answering questions on thewebsite associated with the identified webpage corresponded to a validattempt to obtain information or corresponded to merely a series ofrandom responses intended for the sole purpose of receiving the offeredincentive(s).

A fraud monitoring interface 275 receives the cookie information and/orthe results of the path analysis for use by the fraud processor 270. Thefraud processor 270 of the illustrated example processes thisinformation and indicates to the incentive processor 240 whether theincentives offered to a particular caller should be honored, credited tothe caller's account, actually provided to the caller if the incentiveshave not already been provided, etc. Additionally or alternatively, ifimproper activity is detected, the fraud processor 270 may signal theincentive processor 240 to bar a particular caller from receivingincentives indefinitely, for a predetermined duration of time, etc.

Flowcharts representative of example machine readable instructions thatmay be executed to implement the example call processor 180 of FIGS. 1and/or 2, the example call deflector 190 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2, and/or theexample call router 210, the example interactive voice system 220, theexample webpage identifier 230, the example incentive processor 240, theexample performance evaluator 250, the example load balancer 260 and/orthe example fraud processor 270 of FIG. 2 are shown in FIGS. 3A-3B, 4and 5. In these examples, the machine readable instructions representedby each flowchart may comprise one or more programs for execution by:(a) a processor, such as the processor 612 shown in the example computer600 discussed below in connection with FIG. 6, (b) a controller, and/or(c) any other suitable device. The one or more programs may be embodiedin software stored on a tangible medium such as, for example, a flashmemory, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a DVD, or a memoryassociated with the processor 612, but persons of ordinary skill in theart will readily appreciate that the entire program or programs and/orportions thereof could alternatively be executed by a device other thanthe processor 612 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware(e.g., implemented by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC),a programmable logic device (PLD), a field programmable logic device(FPLD), discrete logic, etc.). For example, any or all of the examplecall processor 180, the example call deflector 190, the example callrouter 210, the example interactive voice system 220, the examplewebpage identifier 230, the example incentive processor 240, the exampleperformance evaluator 250, the example load balancer 260 and/or theexample fraud processor 270 could be implemented by any combination ofsoftware, hardware, and/or firmware. Also, some or all of the machinereadable instructions represented by the flowchart of FIGS. 3A-3B, 4and/or 5 may be implemented manually. Further, although the examplemachine readable instructions are described with reference to theflowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3B, 4 and 5, persons of ordinaryskill in the art will readily appreciate that many other techniques forimplementing the example methods and apparatus described herein mayalternatively be used. For example, with reference to the flowchartsillustrated in FIGS. 3A-3B, 4 and 5, the order of execution of theblocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may bechanged, eliminated, combined and/or subdivided into multiple blocks.

Example machine readable instructions 300 that may be executed toimplement the example call processor 180 and/or the example calldeflector 190 of FIGS. 1 and/or 2 are shown in FIGS. 3A-3B. The examplemachine readable instructions 300 may be executed, for example, eachtime an incoming call is received by the call processor 180 of FIG. 1.Thus, multiple instances of the example machine readable instructions300 may execute in parallel. The machine readable instructions 300 beginexecution at block 304 of FIG. 3A at which the example call router 210included in the example call processor 180 of FIG. 2 receives anincoming call via the call interface 215. The caller may place theincoming call from, for example, the mobile phone 120 or land line phone130 of FIG. 1.

Next, control proceeds to block 308 at which the call router 210processes the incoming call to determine characterizing information forrouting the call to the appropriate destination. As discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2, the characterizing information may include, forexample, caller identification information, information classifying thepurpose of the call, etc. The call router 210, at block 308, maydetermine the characterizing information from, for example, a caller IDservice, touchtone entries, TTY entries and/or speech (e.g., verbalresponses) provided by the caller in response to prompts forinformation, etc. Then, at block 312, the call router 210 classifies andstores the characterizing information determined at block 308 andassociated with the present incoming call received at block 304.Additionally or alternatively, at block 312 the call router 210 mayclassify and store the purpose of the call received at block 304. Thepurpose of the call may be expressed, for example, using action-objectsdetermined from the characterizing information from action-objecttechnology. Control then proceeds to block 316.

At block 316, the load balancer 260 included in the example calldeflector 190 of FIG. 2 determines whether an attempt should be made todeflect the incoming call received at block 304 to an identifiedwebpage. For example, the load balancer 260 may perform load balancingby comparing performance metrics associated with the call center 110 toone or more targets based on business requirements. Then, at block 316,the load balancer 260 may determine whether the traffic load exceeds thedesired capacity of the call center 110 and, if so, enable the callerassociated with the current incoming call to be deflected to a webpagein lieu of continuing the call with the call center 110.

Control then proceeds to block 320 at which the example webpageidentifier 230 and/or the example incentive processor 240 included inthe example call deflector 190 determines whether to provide the callerwith the option of accessing an identified webpage in lieu of continuingthe incoming call with the call center 110. If the caller is to be giventhe option of accessing the webpage (block 320), control proceeds toblock 324 of FIG. 3B. At block 324, the webpage identifier 230determines whether the characterizing information classified and storedby the call router 210 at block 312 is sufficient to enableidentification of a webpage personalized to the particular callerassociated with the current incoming call. If the characterizinginformation is sufficient (block 324), control proceeds to block 328 atwhich the webpage identifier 230 uses the characterizing information torank a set of possible webpages based on their relevancy to the incomingcall. Any appropriate searching technique may be used to rank thewebpages at block 328. Additionally or alternatively, at block 328 atable of webpage destinations may be used to match the purpose of callwith one or more relevant webpages.

Next, control proceeds to block 332 at which the webpage identifier 230determines whether all of the rankings of the set of webpages are lessthan a predetermined threshold. For example, at block 332 the webpageidentifier 230 may simply examine the maximum rank and determine whetherit is less then a relevancy threshold. If the maximum ranking is notless than the threshold (block 332), control proceeds to block 336 atwhich the webpage identifier 230 identifies the webpage having themaximum ranking to be the personalized webpage to be provided to thecaller. If, however, the maximum ranking is less than the threshold(block 332), or if the characterizing information is not sufficient toidentify a personalized webpage (block 324), control proceeds to block340. At block 340, the webpage identifier 230 selects a default, generalwebpage to provide to the caller instead of a personalized webpage. Forexample, the general webpage may correspond to a homepage of the callcenter 110 or a business operating the call center 110.

After a personalized webpage is identified at block 336 or a generalwebpage is selected at block 340, control proceeds to block 344 at whichthe address (e.g., URL) for the webpage is stored by the webpageidentifier 230 for presenting to the caller. Additionally, at block 344the webpage identifier 230 may store an access code, password, etc., toprovide to the caller to allow access to individualized information viathe identified webpage.

Returning to block 320 of FIG. 3A, if the caller is to be given theoption of accessing the webpage, control also proceeds block 348. Forexample, control may proceed to both block 348 at block 324 of FIG. 3Bin parallel to enable parallel processing implementations. At block 348,the incentive processor 240 determines whether an incentive should beoffered to the caller to access an identified webpage in lieu ofcontinuing the call with the call center 110. Additionally, at block 348the incentive processor 240 may determine the number and/or types ofincentives to be offered to the caller to encourage the caller toterminate the current call in favor of accessing the webpage. Asdiscussed above in connection with FIG. 2, example incentives includemonetary rewards, new services, a reduced time to wait for assistancevia the webpage, an improved position in the call waiting queue for asubsequent call, etc. Example machine readable instructions that may beused to implement the processing at block 348 are shown in FIG. 4 anddiscussed in greater detail below.

Next, control proceeds to block 352 at which the incentive processor 240indicates to the interactive voice system 220 included in the examplecall processor 180 which incentives are to be presented to the caller.At block 352 the interactive voice system 220 then provides (e.g.,verbally) the caller with the option to access an identified webpage inlieu of continuing the current call. Additionally, the interactive voicesystem 220 presents (e.g., verbally) the incentives to encourage thecaller to terminate the call and access the identified webpage. Theinteractive voice system 220 then concludes with an invitation to thecaller to accept the option of accessing the webpage by, for example,entering a touchtone command (e.g., by pressing a key on the mobilephone 120 or land line phone 130), entering a TTY command and/or byspeaking a predetermined word or phrase. Control then proceeds to block356.

At block 356 the interactive voice system 220 determines whether thecaller accepts or declines the offer to access the identified webpage inlieu of continuing the current call with the call center 110. Forexample, the interactive voice system 220 may employ touchtone detectiontechniques, TTY detection techniques and/or speech processing techniquesto accept a response provided by the caller. If the caller accepts theoffer to terminate the call and access the webpage (block 356), controlproceeds to block 360 at which the incentive processor 240 credits anyoffered incentives to the caller's account. Additionally oralternatively, at block 360 the interactive voice system 220 may presentthe caller with incentives in the form of special redemption codes,telephone numbers, etc., to gain preferential call center treatment inthe future, etc. In some example implementations, the processing atblock 360 will not be performed until after the caller performs a validaccess of the identified website (e.g., as determined by fraud processor270 at block 372 discussed below). Control then proceeds to block 364 atwhich the interactive voice system 220 provides the caller with theidentified webpage stored by the webpage identifier 230 at block 344 ofFIG. 3B. Then, at block 368 the call processor 180 terminates thecurrent incoming call or, alternatively, the caller terminates the call.

Sometime thereafter, the caller accesses the identified webpage and suchaccess is reported to, for example, the example fraud processor 270included in the example call deflector 190 via the fraud monitoringinterface 275. The fraud processor 270 processes the reportedinformation and indicates the results to the incentive processor 240.Then, at block 372 of FIG. 3A, the incentive processor 240 may creditone or more incentives to the caller's account based on the caller'saccess of the webpage. Additionally or alternatively, the incentiveprocessor 240 may implement incentives, such as assigning the caller toa higher priority queue during a subsequent call to the call center,etc. Execution of the example machine readable instructions 300 thenend.

If, however, at block 320 the load balancer 260 decides not to give thecaller the option of accessing an identified webpage in lieu ofcontinuing the call with the call center, or the caller declines theoption (block 356), control proceeds to block 376 of FIG. 3B. At block376, the incentive processor 240 determines whether the incoming callshould be given preferential placement in the call waiting queue. Suchpreferential placement may be earned, for example, by the calleraccepting an offer to access an identified webpage during a previouscall. The incentive processor 240 may determine, at block 376, whetherpreferential placement is warranted, for example, by: (1) processing aclick-to-call function used to place the current incoming call from apreviously identified webpage; (2) receiving a special code entered bythe caller; (3) determining that the incoming call was placed to aspecial telephone number, etc.

Next, control proceeds to block 380 at which the call processor 180routes the incoming call to the appropriate place in the call waitingqueue. Then, when the incoming call reaches the front of the queue,control proceeds to block 384 at which the incoming call is routed tothe appropriate (e.g., next available) call center representative.Execution of the example machine readable instructions 300 then ends.

Example machine readable instructions 348 that may be used to implementthe processing at block 348 of FIG. 3A are shown in FIG. 4. Execution ofthe example machine readable instructions 348 of FIG. 4 begins at block404 at which the performance evaluator 250 included in the example calldeflector 190 of FIG. 2 determines performance metrics associated with,for example, the call center 110 of FIG. 1. As discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2, such metrics may include, for example, a currentmean time to answer calls, a current mean score for a caller feedbacksurvey, a current traffic load estimate, etc.

Next, control proceeds to block 408 at which the load balancer 260included in the example call deflector 190 compares the performancemetrics determined at block 404 with one or more predetermined targetsbased on business requirements. For example, and as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 2, the load balancer 260, at block 408, may compareany or all of the current mean time to answer calls against a thresholdtime to answer calls, the current mean survey score against a targetscore for a caller feedback survey, the current mean traffic loadagainst a traffic load target and/or self-service automation target(s),etc. Control then proceeds to block 412 at which the load balancer 260determines whether the analysis of the performance metrics indicatesthat a load adjustment is required. For example, at block 412 the loadbalancer 260 may determine, based on the processing at block 408, thatthe current traffic load is greater than a traffic load target and,thus, the load should be reduced. Additionally or alternatively, atblock 412 the load balancer 260 may determine that the current mean timeto answer calls exceeds a threshold time and, thus, the traffic loadshould be reduced. Additionally or alternatively, at block 412 the loadbalancer 260 may determine that the current mean customer survey scoredoes not meet a target score and, thus, the traffic load should bereduced.

If the load balancer 260 determines that no load adjustment is warranted(block 412), control proceeds to block 416 at which the load balancer260 indicates to the incentive processor 240 included in the examplecall deflector 190 that no incentives are to be offered to the callerassociated with the current incoming call. Execution of the examplemachine readable instructions 348 then ends. If, however, loadadjustment is warranted (block 412), control proceeds to block 420 atwhich the load balancer determines the severity of the load imbalanceand, thus, the amount of load adjustment that needs to be performed. Forexample, at block 420 the load balancer 260 may determine by how muchthe current traffic load exceeds one or more target levels.

Next, control proceeds to block 424 at which the incentive processor 240determines the number and/or types of incentives to offer the callerbased on the severity determination made by the load balancer 260 atblock 420. For example, if the severity is high, the incentive processor240 may increase the number and/or value of the incentives offered tothe caller associated with the incoming call to increase the likelihoodof deflecting incoming call to the identified webpage. Control thenproceeds to block 428 at which the incentive processor 240 selects oneor more particular incentives to offer to the caller. The incentiveprocessor 240 also indicates the selected incentive(s) to theinteractive voice system 220 included in the example call processor 180for presentation to the caller. Execution of the example machinereadable instructions 348 then ends.

Example machine readable instructions 500 that may be used to implementfraud processing for the example call processor 180 and/or the examplecall deflector 190 of FIG. 2 are shown in FIG. 5. The example machinereadable instructions 500 may be executed, for example, in response to acaller's access of an identified webpage provided to the caller as analternative to continuing a call with the call center 110. For example,execution of the example machine readable 500 shown in FIG. 5 begins inresponse to the execution of the example machine readable instructions504 by the web server (e.g., one of the web servers 140 of FIG. 1)serving the identified webpage accessed by the caller. Execution of theexample machine readable instructions 504 begins at block 508 at whichthe web server 140 determines whether the caller accessed the identifiedwebpage.

If the caller accesses the identified webpage (block 508), controlproceeds to block 512 at which the web server performs a path analysisto determine the path the caller took in traversing the websiteassociated with the identified webpage. For example, at block 512 theweb server 140 may determine whether the path a caller took in answeringquestions on the website corresponded to a valid attempt to obtaininformation or corresponded to a series of random responses intended forthe sole purpose of receiving the offered incentive(s). At block 512 theweb server 140 may also determine whether the caller has a history ofobtaining incentives via the web server 140. Control then proceeds toblock 516 at which the web server 140 provides the caller's path (andany incentive history, if appropriate) to the call center 110 via, forexample, the fraud monitoring interface 275.

Upon receipt of the caller's path at the call center 110, execution ofthe example machine readable instructions begins at block 520 at whichthe fraud processor 270 included in the example call deflector 190analyzes the caller's path to determine whether it corresponds to avalid path through the website associated with the identified webpage.At block 524 the fraud processor 270 may also analyze the caller'sincentive history to determine whether the caller has a history ofobtaining incentives inappropriately. If at block 524 the fraudprocessor 270 determines that the path is valid (and there is no historyof inappropriate incentive acquisition, if applicable), control proceedsto block 528 at which the fraud processor 270 signals the incentiveprocessor 240 included in the example call deflector 190 to validate(e.g., honor) the incentives offered to the caller to access theidentified webpage in lieu of continuing a previous call with the callcenter 110. If, however, the fraud processor 270 determines that thepath is invalid (or there is a history of inappropriate incentiveacquisition, if applicable) (block 524), control proceeds to block 532at which the fraud processor 270 signals the incentive processor 240included in the example call deflector 190 to invalidate (e.g., delete)the incentives offered to the caller to access the identified webpage inlieu of continuing a previous call with the call center 110.

After the incentives are validated at block 528 or invalidated at block532, control proceeds to block 536. At block 536 the incentive processor240 indicates the results of validating or invalidating the incentivesto the interactive voice system 220 included in the example callprocessor 180. Then, if the caller is currently participating in anactive call with the call center 110, the interactive voice system 220may present the caller (e.g., verbally) with the results of validatingor invalidating the previously offered incentives. Execution of theexample machine readable instructions then ends.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computer 600 capable ofimplementing the apparatus and methods disclosed herein. The computer600 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVD player, a CDplayer, a digital video recorder, a personal video recorder, a set topbox, or any other type of computing device.

The system 600 of the instant example includes a processor 612 such as ageneral purpose programmable processor. The processor 612 includes alocal memory 614, and executes coded instructions 616 present in thelocal memory 614 and/or in another memory device. The processor 612 mayexecute, among other things, the machine readable instructionsrepresented in FIGS. 3A-3B, 4 and 5. The processor 612 may be any typeof processing unit, such as one or more microprocessors from the Intel®Centrino® family of microprocessors, the Intel® Pentium® family ofmicroprocessors, the Intel® Itanium® family of microprocessors, and/orthe Intel XScale® family of processors. Of course, other processors fromother families are also appropriate.

The processor 612 is in communication with a main memory including avolatile memory 618 and a non-volatile memory 620 via a bus 622. Thevolatile memory 618 may be implemented by Static Random Access Memory(SRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Dynamic RandomAccess Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM) and/orany other type of random access memory device. The non-volatile memory620 may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type ofmemory device. Access to the main memory 618, 620 is typicallycontrolled by a memory controller (not shown) in a conventional manner.

The computer 600 also includes an interface circuit 624. The interfacecircuit 624 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, suchas an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB), and/or a thirdgeneration input/output (3GIO) interface.

One or more input devices 626 are connected to the interface circuit624. The input device(s) 626 permit a user to enter data and commandsinto the processor 612. The input device(s) can be implemented by, forexample, a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, a track-pad, a trackball,an isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 628 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 624. The output devices 628 can be implemented, for example, bydisplay devices (e.g., a liquid crystal display, a cathode ray tubedisplay (CRT)), by a printer and/or by speakers. The interface circuit624, thus, typically includes a graphics driver card.

The interface circuit 624 also includes a communication device such as amodem or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal computers via a network (e.g., an Ethernet connection, adigital subscriber line (DSL), a telephone line, coaxial cable, acellular telephone system, etc.).

The computer 600 also includes one or more mass storage devices 630 forstoring software and data. Examples of such mass storage devices 630include floppy disk drives, hard drive disks, compact disk drives anddigital versatile disk (DVD) drives. The mass storage device 630 mayimplement storage for the call characterizing information determined bythe example call router 210. Alternatively, the volatile memory 618 mayimplement storage for the call characterizing information determined bythe example call router 210.

At least some of the above described example methods and/or apparatusare implemented by one or more software and/or firmware programs runningon a computer processor. However, dedicated hardware implementationsincluding, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits,programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise beconstructed to implement some or all of the example methods and/orapparatus described herein, either in whole or in part. Furthermore,alternative software implementations including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the example methods and/or apparatus describedherein.

It should also be noted that the example software and/or firmwareimplementations described herein are optionally stored on a tangiblestorage medium, such as: a magnetic medium (e.g., a magnetic disk ortape); a magneto-optical or optical medium such as an optical disk; or asolid state medium such as a memory card or other package that housesone or more read-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories,or other re-writable (volatile) memories; or a signal containingcomputer instructions. A digital file attached to e-mail or otherinformation archive or set of archives is considered a distributionmedium equivalent to a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, the examplesoftware and/or firmware described herein can be stored on a tangiblestorage medium or distribution medium such as those described above orsuccessor storage media.

To the extent the above specification describes example components andfunctions with reference to particular standards and protocols, it isunderstood that the scope of this patent is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For instance, each of the standards forInternet and other packet switched network transmission (e.g.,Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP), UserDatagram Protocol (UDP)/IP, HyperText Markup Language (HTML), HyperTextTransfer Protocol (HTTP)) represent examples of the current state of theart. Such standards are periodically superseded by faster or moreefficient equivalents having the same general functionality.Accordingly, replacement standards and protocols having the samefunctions are equivalents which are contemplated by this patent and areintended to be included within the scope of the accompanying claims.

Furthermore, although the specific examples illustrated herein focus ondeflect callers to websites, the example methods and apparatus discussedherein are not limited to deflecting callers only to websites. Theexample methods and apparatus discussed herein may be readily adapted todeflect incoming calls to one or more target destinations other than awebpage. An example target destination supported by the example methodsand apparatus discussed herein includes, but is not limited to, any typeof automated call processing device, automated call processingapplication, etc. Additionally or alternatively, although the specificexamples illustrated herein provide that the caller consents toterminate the incoming call prior to receiving the identified webpage'saddress, the example methods ad apparatus discussed herein are notlimited thereto. For example, the methods and apparatus discussed hereinmay be readily adapted to provide the address information for theidentified webpage to the caller before obtaining consent to terminatethe call, while allowing the incoming call to continue, etc.

Additionally, although this patent discloses example systems includingsoftware or firmware executed on hardware, it should be noted that suchsystems are merely illustrative and should not be considered aslimiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of thesehardware and software components could be embodied exclusively inhardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware or in somecombination of hardware, firmware and/or software. Accordingly, whilethe above specification described example systems, methods and articlesof manufacture, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate that the examples are not the only way to implement suchsystems, methods and articles of manufacture. Therefore, althoughcertain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have beendescribed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limitedthereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus andarticles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appendedclaims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to deflect a caller to a webpage, themethod comprising: offering, via an interactive voice system, anincentive to the caller to terminate a call and access the webpage;after the caller accepts the incentive that was offered, providing, viaa processor, the incentive to the caller in a manner requiring thewebpage to be accessed by the caller after the call is terminated, theincentive being credited to an account associated with the caller; andafter the caller has accessed the webpage, invalidating, via theprocessor, the incentive offered to the caller and credited to theaccount associated with the caller in response to determining that thecaller performed an invalid traversal of a website associated with thewebpage.
 2. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprisingdetermining the incentive to offer to the caller based on informationcharacterizing the call.
 3. The method as defined in claim 2, whereinthe characterizing information comprises caller identificationinformation and a touchtone entry provided by the caller in response toa prompt.
 4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the call is afirst call, and the incentive comprises an offer to assign the caller toa higher priority queue during a subsequent second call.
 5. The methodas defined in claim 4, further comprising providing, during the firstcall, a code to be entered by the caller to cause the caller to beassigned to the higher priority queue during the subsequent second call.6. The method as defined in claim 4, further comprising providingcontact information to the caller through the website, the contactinformation to be used to assign the caller to the higher priority queueduring the subsequent second call.
 7. A tangible machine readablestorage device comprising machine readable instructions which, whenexecuted, cause a machine to perform operations comprising: offering anincentive to a caller to terminate a call and access a webpage; afterthe caller accepts the incentive that was offered, providing theincentive to the caller in a manner requiring the webpage to be accessedby the caller after the call is terminated, the incentive to be creditedto an account associated with the caller; and after the caller hasaccessed the webpage, invalidating the incentive offered to the callerand credited to the account associated with the caller in response todetermining that the caller performed an invalid traversal of a websiteassociated with the webpage.
 8. The storage device as defined in claim7, wherein the operations further comprise determining the incentive tooffer to the caller based on information characterizing the call.
 9. Thestorage device as defined in claim 8, wherein the characterizinginformation comprises caller identification information and a touchtoneentry provided by the caller in response to a prompt.
 10. The storagedevice as defined in claim 7, wherein the call is a first call, and theincentive comprises an offer to assign the caller to a higher priorityqueue during a subsequent second call.
 11. The storage device as definedin claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise providing, duringthe first call, a code to be entered by the caller to cause the callerto be assigned to the higher priority queue during the subsequent secondcall.
 12. The storage device as defined in claim 10, wherein theoperations further comprise providing contact information to the callerthrough the website, the contact information to be used to assign thecaller to the higher priority queue during the subsequent second call.13. A call deflector to deflect incoming calls to a webpage, the calldeflector comprising: a memory having machine readable instructionsstored thereon; and a processor to execute the instructions to performoperations comprising: offering an incentive to a caller to terminate acall and access the webpage; after the caller accepts the incentive thatwas offered, providing the incentive to the caller in a manner requiringthe webpage to be accessed by the caller after the call is terminated,the incentive to be credited to an account associated with the caller;and after the caller has accessed the webpage, invalidating theincentive offered to the caller and credited to the account associatedwith the caller in response to determining that the caller performed aninvalid traversal of a website associated with the webpage.
 14. The calldeflector as defined in claim 13, wherein the operations furthercomprise determining the incentive to offer to the caller based oninformation characterizing the call.
 15. The call deflector as definedin claim 14, wherein the characterizing information comprises calleridentification information and a touchtone entry provided by the callerin response to a prompt.
 16. The call deflector as defined in claim 13,wherein the call is a first call, and the incentive comprises an offerto assign the caller to a higher priority queue during a subsequentsecond call.
 17. The call deflector as defined in claim 16, wherein theoperations further comprise providing, during the first call, a code tobe entered by the caller to cause the caller to be assigned to thehigher priority queue during the subsequent second call.
 18. The calldeflector as defined in claim 16, wherein the operations furthercomprise providing contact information to the caller through thewebsite, the contact information to be used to assign the caller to thehigher priority queue during the subsequent second call.